SPEAKERS

Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.

Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University Director

Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.

Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University Director

Shinya Yamanaka received his M.D. from Kobe University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from Osaka City University in 1993. From 1987 to 1989 he was a resident at the National Osaka Hospital. He spent the period from 1993 to 1996 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco. He returned to Osaka City University Medical School to take an assistant professor position in 1996, and was appointed as an associate professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 1999, where he became a full professor in 2003. He moved on to take up his current position as a professor in Kyoto University in 2004. His research team announced the successful generation of mouse iPS cells in 2006 and of human iPS cells in 2007. With the breakthrough technology, he was appointed as a senior investigator at Gladstone in 2007. Since 2008, he serves as the director of the Center for iPS cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University.

Owing to his prominent deeds and discoveries, he has received many awards including 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (U.S.), 100th Imperial Prize and Japan Academy Prize (Japan) in 2010, 26th Annual Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology in 2010, 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine (Israel), order of Cultural Merit in 2012 (Japan) and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012. He was also selected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) in 2011.
He also received Japan Association of New Economy Innovation Prize in 2014.

Larry Ellison is Executive Chairman of Oracle Corporation and Chief Technology Officer. He was CEO of Oracle from 1977, when he founded the company, until September 2014. Under his guidance, Oracle has become one of the world’s largest enterprise technology companies, with more than 400,000 customers in 145 countries and annual revenues over $38 billion. Oracle has one of the most active mergers and acquisitions programs in the world, with more than 100 acquired companies in the past 10 years, valued at over $60 billion, including the industry transforming acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Mr. Ellison also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar. He sails with ORACLE TEAM USA, and successfully brought the America’s Cup back to the United States for the first time in over 15 years. In the summer of 2013, ORACLE TEAM USA defended the America’s Cup in an amazing comeback win against Team New Zealand. Mr. Ellison owns the BNP Paribas Open, the largest combined ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in the world. Mr. Ellison also founded The Lawrence Ellison Foundation.

Drew Houston

Dropbox
CEO and Co-Founder

Drew Houston

Dropbox
CEO and Co-Founder

Drew Houston is CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, and has led Dropbox’s growth from a simple idea to a service used by millions around the world. Before founding Dropbox, Drew received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2006. After graduating, Drew was endlessly frustrated by carrying USB drives and emailing himself files. In early 2007, he teamed up with fellow MIT student Arash Ferdowsi and the two began working on the project that would eventually become Dropbox. Drew has been named one of Fortune’s “40 Under 40”, and in early 2014 Drew and Arash were named TechCrunch’s “Founders of the Year.”

George R. Roberts

KKR & Co. L.P.
Co-Chairman and Co-CEO

George R. Roberts

KKR & Co. L.P.
Co-Chairman and Co-CEO

George R. Roberts co-founded KKR in 1976 and is Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. He is actively involved in managing the Firm and serves on each of the regional Private Equity Investment and Portfolio Management Committees. Mr. Roberts has served as a director or trustee of several cultural and educational institutions, including Claremont McKenna College. He is also founder and Chairman of the board of directors of REDF, a San Francisco nonprofit organization. He earned a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College in 1966 and a J.D. from the University of California (Hastings) Law School in 1969. Mr. Roberts has more than four decades of experience financing, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies, as well as serving on the boards of a number of KKR portfolio companies.

Charles H. Rivkin

Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Departme…

Charles H. Rivkin

Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of StateAssistant Secretary

Charles H. Rivkin began serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs on February 13, 2014, and was sworn in publicly by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on April 15, 2014.

Prior to his appointment, Rivkin served for more than four years as the United States Ambassador to France and Monaco where he led America’s first and one of its largest diplomatic missions, which has six constituent posts throughout France and represents over 50 U.S. government agencies and sections. Rivkin’s confirmation marks the first time a U.S. ambassador and former CEO has ever led the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, and he was brought in with a team of business leaders to help fulfill Secretary Kerry’s mandate that economic policy is foreign policy.

Prior to his government service, Ambassador Rivkin worked in the media sector for over 20 years where he served as President and CEO of award-winning entertainment companies such as The Jim Henson Company and Wildbrain. Rivkin helped engineer the sale of The Jim Henson Company in 2000 for nearly $1 billion. His contribution to the television landscape has influenced generations of viewers, and Rivkin was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company.

Ambassador Rivkin spent his early childhood in Luxembourg, Senegal, and The Gambia where his father, William R. Rivkin, was the United States Ambassador under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In honor of his father, Ambassador Rivkin and his family have proudly presented the U.S. State Department’s annual Rivkin Award, since 1968, encouraging “intellectual courage and constructive dissent” among officers in the U.S. Foreign Service. The award was created in part with the help of Charles Rivkin’s godfather, Hubert H. Humphrey.

Ambassador Rivkin received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1984, graduating with distinction in political science and international relations. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1988. In 2013, Ambassador Rivkin was personally awarded the Légion d’honneur with the rank of Commander by French President François Hollande.

YOSHIKI

Composer, Producer, Entrepreneur

YOSHIKI

Composer, Producer, Entrepreneur

Yoshiki is a songwriter, drummer, and a classically-trained pianist.
He produced a piano concerto to celebrate the tenth year of the Emperor of Japan’s reign, the theme song of the opening ceremony of the World Expo, the Hollywood movie theme song, and the official theme song for the Golden Globes®. He is a great musician who is performing in the world.
His rock group X Japan has sold 30-million singles and albums combined, and filled the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome a record 18 times. Now the band’s popularity is spreading throughout the world, having recently completed a sold-out World Tour, performing in North America, Europe, Latin America, and South East Asia.
He has been making headlines in the U.S. with his legendary band X Japan, which recently performed their first stateside concert in four years at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

John V. Roos was the United States Ambassador to Japan from August 2009 – August 2013. On Aug. 6, 2010 he became the first sitting U.S. Ambassador ever to attend the commemoration ceremony of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. Ambassador Roos’ service in Tokyo coincided with the devastating 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis on March 11, 2011. Following this tragedy, Ambassador Roos led the American effort on the ground in support of Japan’s response to the multi-dimensional and unprecedented disaster. After the crisis, Ambassador Roos also led the creation of the TOMODACHI Initiative, a public-private partnership that has raised more than thirty million dollars and established more than 40 exchange programs.
Ambassador Roos is a member of the Board of Directors at Salesforce.com and Sony Corporation and the Global Advisory Board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Previously, Ambassador Roos served as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, & Rosati, the leading law firm in the United States in the representation of technology, life sciences, and emerging growth companies. Ambassador Roos is a graduate with honors and distinction from Stanford University and from Stanford Law School where he was Order of the Coif.

Taavi Kotka

Deputy Secretary General
ICT (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications)

Taavi Kotka

Deputy Secretary General
ICT (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications)

Taavi Kotka is the government CIO, Deputy Secretary-General for ICT of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, responsible for discussions about e-Estonia. Mr. Kotka started his career as a software programmer after graduating university. Prior to working with Estonian Government as the CIO, he was focusing on supporting innovative start-up companies as an investor as well as a founder. He is a Co-Founder and CEO of Nortal, the largest software development company in the Baltic region with offices in 8 countries and 650 staffs. Nortal is a leading company in e-government, e-health and telecom solutions provider in the region and also selected the most employee and family friendly company in Estonia in 2008 and in 2010.
Mr. Kotka is a board member of University of Tartu–Institute of Computer Science, Estonian IT Academy, and Estonian Chess Association. Mr. Kotka received Honors of the President of the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications from 2009-2013. He was selected the Entrepreneur of the Year in Estonia by Ernst & Young in 2011.

Nathan Blecharczyk

Airbnb
CTO & Co-Founder

Nathan Blecharczyk

Airbnb
CTO & Co-Founder

Nathan is the co-founder and CTO at Airbnb. He oversees the technical strategy of the company, and is dedicated to building a team of world-class engineers to keep Airbnb at the forefront of the industry. Nathan became an entrepreneur early on running a business while he was in high school, selling to clients in more than 20 countries. He received a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University and held several engineering positions with Microsoft, OPNET Technologies and Batiq before becoming a co-founder at Airbnb.

Wim Elfrink is Cisco’s Executive Vice President for Industry Solutions and Chief Globalisation Officer. He is responsible for three global functions at Cisco: the Industry Solutions Group, the Emerging Countries Initiatives, and the company’s globalisation strategy. Elfrink is an Executive Officer and sits on Cisco’s Operating Committee.

Elfrink joined Cisco in 1997 assuming global responsibility for Cisco Services Europe. In 2000, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Cisco Services and under his leadership the business grew from $3.3 billion to more than $7.6 billion in 2010.
Elfrink was appointed Chief Globalisation Officer in 2006 and was named Executive Vice President in 2007. He went on to establish Cisco’s Globalisation Centre East (GCE) in Bangalore, India. Over four years, Elfrink grew the GCE into Cisco’s second world headquarters, and an innovation hub.

Elfrink is recognised as Cisco’s Corporate Entrepreneur in residence and is responsible for leading Cisco’s company-wide efforts in support of the “The Internet of Everything” (IoE) and “The Internet of Things” (IoT). A core focus of Elfrink’s global charter is identify significant technology opportunities for city, country and business transformation in emerging countries that are experiencing significant economic, social and environmental change.

Elfrink is an active board member of the US India Business Council, the Silatech Board in Qatar, the New Cities Foundation, and the Chongqing Mayor’s International Economic Advisory Group. In 2009 Daily News & Analysis, a leading Indian newspaper, named Elfrink one of Bangalore’s 50 Most Influential People, one of 12 from the corporate world and the only non-Indian to be featured. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Ambassador C. Howard Wilkins, Jr. Award from the Netherlands-America Foundation.

Phil Libin

Evernote Corporation
CEO

Phil Libin

Evernote Corporation
CEO

Phil Libin is the CEO of Evernote, the service that’s helping millions of people worldwide remember everything of value in their daily lives. He is an entrepreneur and executive who has led two Internet companies from the very beginning to proven commercial success, and helped three others through rapid growth. Prior to joining Evernote, Phil founded and served as president of CoreStreet, currently one of the top companies providing smart credential and identity management technologies to governments and large corporations throughout the world. CoreStreet was acquired by ActivIdentity, now owned by HDI, in 2009. Previously, Phil was founder and CEO of Engine 5, a leading Boston-based Internet software development company acquired by Vignette Corporation (VIGN) in 2000, where he went on to serve as principal architect and chief technologist for applications.

Adi Tatarko

Houzz
CEO & Co-founder

Adi Tatarko

Houzz
CEO & Co-founder

Adi Tatarko is the CEO and co-founder of Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design that brings together both professionals and homeowners via mobile, local and social tools. Adi and her husband and cofounder, Alon Cohen, started Houzz out of challenges that they faced during their own home remodel. Today, millions of homeowners and more than 600,000 active architects, designers, contractors and other remodeling professionals connect through Houzz.com and its mobile apps every month, sharing their photos, advice and product recommendations.

John Zimmer

Lyft Inc.
Co-founder and President

John Zimmer

Lyft Inc.
Co-founder and President

John Zimmer is the co-founder and President of Lyft Inc. John’s interest in peer-to-peer transportation began at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Upon learning that only 20% of seats in cars on highways are occupied, he began working on ways to use existing information infrastructures to solve the problem of unused and empty seats. After graduating first in his class from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, John spent two years at Lehman Brothers before (luckily) leaving to rideshare his way from New York to San Francisco to join co-founder Logan Green in launching Zimride, and eventually Lyft.

With Lyft, John hopes to fix the current state of transportation to eliminate traffic and make our cities safer, more affordable and better connected. Since unveiling the product in June 2012, Lyft has quickly become one of the fastest-growing tech companies with more than $330 million raised from leading investors Andreessen Horowitz, Alibaba, Coatue and Founders Fund, and has been featured in The Economist, the New York Times and on NBC’s TODAY Show.

Jess Lee

Polyvore
Co-Founder & CEO

Jess Lee

Polyvore
Co-Founder & CEO

Jess Lee is CEO of Polyvore. Polyvore lets people shop for fashion, beauty and home decor in one, easy convenient place, and allows you to get inspiration for how to style any item from the world’s largest fashion community.

Jess is half-Japanese, half-Chinese, and grew up in Hong Kong. She moved to the US at the age of 17 to study Computer Science at Stanford University. After graduating, she worked at Google as a product manager for Google Maps. While at Google, Jess discovered Polyvore and became a passionate user of the product. A product manager at heart, she had ideas for how to improve the site and sent the Polyvore co-founders an email with ideas and suggestions. This led to her joining Polyvore as the first employee. She eventually became Vice President of Product and then CEO. Jess has been featured in Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list and Glamour Magazine’s Top 35 Under 35 Women in Tech. Jess loves drawing and manga.

Michelle Phan

ipsy
Co-Founder

Michelle Phan

ipsy
Co-Founder

Michelle Phan is a digital pioneer, who trail-blazed her way in the world of fashion and beauty on YouTube. With a growing global community of over 7.5 million, Michelle’s videos have been viewed more than 1 billion times, making her one of the most watched talents in the digital space. She is an award winning content creator, and was recently honored with the first ever Streamy ICON award, as well as Forbes 30 Under 30 in the category of Art and Style.

In addition to her immensely successful YouTube channel, Michelle is the Founder & Executive Producer for FAWN (For All Women Network), a women’s lifestyle network, and co-founder of ipsy.com, a destination for beauty devotees to network, try new products, and watch and upload beauty tutorials. In 2013, Michelle teamed up with L’Oreal to launch her make-up line em Michelle Phan.

Most recently, Michelle has joined forces with Cutting Edge Group to launch Shift Music Group, a unique model for a recording and music publishing company that leverages the power of social media to spread awareness for new and existing artists. Michelle also launched a book in October 2014, called “Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success – Online and Off.”

Lin Kobayashi

International School of Asia, Karuizawa Founder and Chair of the Board

Lin Kobayashi

International School of Asia, Karuizawa Founder and Chair of the Board

Lin Kobayashi is the co-founder and Chair of the Board at International School of Asia, Karuizawa (ISAK), a residential high school that opened in Karuizawa in 2014. ISAK aims to bring together top students from around the world with the aim of developing leaders who are eager to work for positive change in their countries and communities.

Ms. Kobayashi’s passion for education began during her studies at a residential high school in Canada, and continued to develop over the years. Before returning to Tokyo in 2008 to launch the ISAK project, she spent two years working for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Philippines, where she worked to program non-formal education projects for street children. Prior to UNICEF, Ms. Kobayashi worked at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Ms. Kobayashi began her career at Morgan Stanley and holds an MA in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a BA in Development Economics from the University of Tokyo.

More recently, Ms. Kobayashi was honored with the title of “Young Global Leader 2012” by the World Economic Forum, was selected as a “Change-maker of the Year 2013” and “Nikkei Woman of the Year 2014” by Nikkei Business, one of Japan’s top business magazines. She is currently a member of the Committee for Japan’s Future under the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, as well as a member of the Council for the Implementation of Education Rebuilding, Cabinet Secretariat.